12.5 Commercial Auto Endorsements

Drive Other Car (DOC)

The Drive Other Car endorsement solves a classic gap. A corporation owns its vehicles and an executive drives a company car but owns no personal auto and therefore has no personal auto policy. When that executive borrows or rents a car for personal use, the company BACF (written for business use) may not protect them.

DOC extends liability, auto medical payments, and UM/UIM to named individuals (and resident spouses) for the use of autos the company does not own. It effectively gives the executive personal-auto-like protection through the commercial policy. The endorsement must name each covered individual; it is not automatic for all employees, and it does not apply to autos the named individual already owns and could schedule directly.

Hired and Non-Owned Auto Extensions

When a base policy is written Symbol 2 (owned only), two gaps remain that endorsements or additional symbols fill:

Hired Auto Physical Damage can add comprehensive/collision on rented vehicles, often with a stated limit and deductible, since Symbol 8 alone addresses liability. The distinction matters because the rental contract usually makes the renter responsible for damage to the car itself; Symbol 8 liability does not pay for that, so without hired physical damage the business pays the rental company out of pocket.

A related point: hired-auto liability is generally excess over coverage the auto's owner carries, while hired physical damage is direct. Knowing which coverage is primary versus excess in a borrowed-vehicle scenario is a frequent exam question, since examiners test whether candidates can identify the order in which two policies respond.

First-Party Convenience Endorsements

Several endorsements add owner-pleasing coverages:

• Rental Reimbursement (CA 99 23) - pays a stated daily amount (e.g., $30/day) up to a maximum number of days (e.g., 30 days, $900 max) for a substitute vehicle while a covered auto is being repaired after a covered physical-damage loss.
• Towing and Labor - reimburses towing and on-site labor up to a small per-disablement limit (commonly $75-$100).
• Audio/Visual and Electronic Equipment - schedules permanently installed equipment exceeding the form's built-in sublimit.

These endorsements add little premium but materially improve the client experience after a loss. Rental reimbursement only triggers after a covered physical-damage loss, not a mechanical breakdown, so a candidate should not confuse it with a service contract. The towing-and-labor coverage likewise pays only for disablement of a covered auto, not for routine maintenance, and is capped at a small per-disablement amount.

Mobile Equipment vs. Auto

The form distinguishes autos (covered by commercial auto) from mobile equipment such as bulldozers, forklifts, and cranes (covered by CGL). The dividing line is heavily tested:

• Equipment designed for use principally off public roads is mobile equipment - CGL responds.
• BUT if the equipment is licensed for road use or subject to a compulsory or financial-responsibility law in the state where it is principally garaged, it becomes an auto and commercial auto liability applies.

So a forklift used only inside a warehouse is mobile equipment; a self-propelled snowplow licensed to operate on highways is an auto. The same physical machine can shift categories the moment a state plate is attached, which is why agents confirm registration status before placing the exposure. The classification drives which policy pays, because the CGL excludes autos and the BACF excludes mobile equipment. A misclassification can leave a loss with no coverage on either form, so this is more than an academic distinction.

Pollution Broadening

The base BACF has a broad pollution exclusion. The Pollution Liability - Broadened Coverage for Covered Autos endorsement (CA 99 48) restores limited coverage for pollutants that are needed for or result from the normal operation of the covered auto - such as fuels, lubricants, fluids, and exhaust gases - and for substances that are NOT being transported as cargo.

It does NOT cover pollution from cargo being hauled (that requires the MCS-90 financial responsibility plus separate pollution/cargo coverage). This narrow restoration is a common exam distinction: a diesel spill from a wrecked tractor's own fuel tank can be covered, but a load of hazardous chemicals leaking from a tanker is not. Carriers that haul pollutants need dedicated pollution coverage and the federal financial-responsibility filings on top of the BACF.

Hired and Non-Owned: the Coverage Gaps They Fill

Hired auto liability covers autos the business rents, leases, or borrows (not owned); non-owned auto liability covers autos owned by employees used on company business (the boss is vicariously liable when a worker runs an errand in their own car). A business with no owned vehicles but employees who drive personal cars for work still needs non-owned coverage — the most-tested HNOA gap.

Drive Other Car (DOC) Recap

The Drive Other Car endorsement extends a commercial auto policy to an executive and family when they drive a personal/borrowed auto, filling the hole left because they have no personal auto policy (the company car is their only vehicle). DOC effectively gives the named individual personal-auto-style coverage in non-owned cars. "Executive with only a company car, needs personal coverage" signals DOC.